Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 12:51:04 -0500
Reply-To: leto@WERPLE.MIRA.NET.AU
[ Send all responses to leto@WERPLE.MIRA.NET.AU only. Any responses to
the list or list-owners will be returned to you. ]
BROTHER SISTER - QUEER NEWS FROM DOWNUNDER
============================================================
SWAP CARD BATTLE RAGES ON
*An exemption to censorship laws will be sought by the Queensland AIDS
Council (QuAC) to allow the distribution of the banned Bubble Boy swap cards,
a central component of its current Bubble Boy safe sex campaign.*
The swap cards were recently classified as a Category 1 Restricted
Publication by the Queensland Publications Classification Officer (PCO),
David Cannavan, making their sale, public display of distribution illegal in
Queensland.
Cannavan said the reasons for his decision were, that in his opinion, some of
the images would cause offence to a reasonable adult person and were
unsuitable for perusal by a minor.
He said although the cards were obviously designed to impart an important
health message, the form by which it was being achieved required
consideration.
The cards were referred to Cannavan by Health Minister, Jim Elder, following
calls by Opposition Health spokesperson, Mike Horan, for the cards to be
destroyed.
Horan said the cards were a pornographic promotion of the homosexual
lifestyle, under the guise of a safe sex promotion.
"The cards are aimed at the youth market and will inevitably get into the
hands of school children throughout Queensland."
He declined to comment to 'Brother Sister' further, other than to say he was
concerned with the method of distribution and content of the cards.
The cards have a photographic depiction of men engaging in various safe sex
and injecting practices with corresponding safety hints on the back, and were
to be distributed in condom packs in gay bars and clubs by QuAC volunteers
who would also provide additional information.
QuAC Director, Noel Hobson, strongly denied the Bubble Boy cards were
pornographic and said it was unbelievable that as Category 1 Restricted they
were in the same classification has "x-rated hard-core videos".
"A view has grown in the community that they (the cards) are incredibly
explicit and lurid - the reality is that they are not," Hobson said.
"With the exception of one cards, we have managed to find similar images
involving heterosexuals in magazines that are freely available from
newsagents."
He said at the bottom of most of the opposition to the cards was ignorance
and a strong streak of homophobia.
"Anyone who is saying this (campaign) is about promoting homosexuality either
doesn't understand about health promotion or is homophobic."
The Opposition Health spokesperson, Mike Horan, also came under fire from
members of his constituency when Toowoomba lesbian and gay group, The Silver
Wheat Society, accused him of playing political games with peoples lives.
President of the Society, Debra Parks, said the Toowoomba lesbian and gay
community were outraged by Horan's outburst and embarrassed by his lack of
basic knowledge of proven and legitimate health promotion strategies.
"His ploy is short sighted and dangerous"
"It comes at a time when there is some evidence of rising levels of new HIV
infections among gay men and this is being attributed to the absence of
explicit behaviour modification education targeted at this group," Parks
said.
Hobson said the QuAC board still believed the swap cards were a valuable
educational tool and was determined to continue with the campaign and
maintain its integrity.
"We are not saying you should be out doing these things that are on the
cards, what we are saying is that people do, and if you're going to do that
here is the information about what you need to do to do it safely, to protect
your life and the life of other people.
"This is about creating an environment in the clubs where people could talk
about these behaviours and how to do them safely," he said.
"Provided there is anyway within the existing Australian laws that we can run
this campaign we would look at doing that."
Kelly Banister
MILLION DOLLAR HETERO CAMPAIGN
*A Queensland-based group calling themselves the International Heterosexual
Foundation are planning a national advertising campaign to promote
heterosexuals as the "real people".*
The on-going campaign, to be known as 'Heterosexual And Proud Of It' will
target teenagers with a range of electronic and print media advertising.
The heterosexual pressure group claim to a "non-religious, apolitical
organisation funded by individuals and corporations deeply concerned with the
overt propagation of deviant sexual practices."
A spokesperson for the group, Mr Kris Pickering, claims that the campaign is
being mounted to counteract AIDS council advertising. "Enormous amounts of
public monies are being spent to promote homosexuality under the guise of
HIV/AIDS awareness."
The group also claim that a budget of nearly $4 million has been secured for
the campaign which will "ensure that there is no confusion what is a normal
sexual lifestyle".
Pickering added, "There are real community concerns that our children are
being confused by the insidious propaganda that promotes homosexuality as a
happy, healthy lifestyle."
The Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights have branded the proposed
campaign as "similar to the white supremacists beliefs of neo-Nazi groups."
A council spokesperson, Rodney Croome, says "The International Heterosexual
Foundation is promoting the idea that being heterosexual is superior to being
homosexual, and this is objectionable as the belief that belonging to one
race makes you superior to another race."
The campaign has also upset AIDS councils around the country, as the group
also intend to divert their funds to lobby State and Federal politicians to
ensure that they no longer support advertising that they deem as promoting
homosexuality.
The group say that they will be using high-profile sports people and medical
practitioners in their campaign to "re- inforce" the "positive aspects" of
heterosexuality.
SCHOOL CAPTAIN'S POOFTER TAUNTS
(NB: "Poofter" is a common pejorative used in Australia for a gay male,
similar to "faggot")
*A 17 yr old Sydney school boy will test anti-vilification laws when he
begins proceedings against the NSW Department of Education as a result of his
school captain calling him a "poofter" while addressing a school assembly.*
The incident allegedly occurred on August 1, 1994, and also led the student,
known as 'Peter', to take action against the school's principal, deputy
principal and one other teacher.
The school captain is alleged to have taken the microphone at an assembly and
said. "No one else can sniff out a poofter at 50 metres" and that Peter had a
"closet experience".
No action was taken by the school staff and the teacher named in the action
is alleged to have laughed at the school captain's comments. The incident led
to continual taunts from fellow students, forcing Peter to quit school before
completing his final year.
It is also claimed that Peter was then prevented from giving a talk to year
10 students, that teachers lobbied to have him excluded from a local
newspaper article relating to his class and that he skipped school for fear
of harassment.
RATINGS DOWN FOR MARDI GRAS
*The ratings for the telecast of this year's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
parade were down on last year's figures.*
The ABC scored a ratings coup with their first telecast of the parade last
year and hoped to build on that result this year, importing the highly
popular Julian Clary to co-host the event.
The telecast, fraught with controversy, last year was greeted with an
organised campaign aimed at stopping it from going ahead.
Like last year, the parade was not telecast live, instead it was packaged
into an easily digested, one-hour's viewing, interspersed with gay and
lesbian lifestyle stories.
Commercial stations were this year watching out for the ratings result to see
if telecast of the parade might be a viable proposition for their networks in
the future.
However, the ratings were down in most capital cities around the country,
with only Sydney and Adelaide recording an increase in viewers.
In Sydney, where a large increase in viewers were expected due to the
decrease in people at the actual parade caused by Sydney's wet spell on the
night, ratings only went up one point to 29 this year.
The biggest turn-off was in Perth where the parade only rated 12 as compared
to last years 18. In Melbourne the broadcast rated 15, last year it peaked at
18.
Media analysts report that there was an overall increase in the 25-39 age
group watching but that people between the ages of 18-24 turned away in
droves this year.
This year the commercial networks were prepared for the parade broadcast and
rolled out big name movies to go up against it. The parade was beaten in the
ratings by Wesley Snipe's action flick, 'Passenger 57'.
All networks can bid for the rights to the parade coverage each year, and
though the ratings were down, a healthy second placing (beating 'Sneakers'
and 'David's Mother') might mean that the ABC may have a battle retaining its
rights.
============================================================
BOTTOM LINE
*A new campaign poster from the Victorian AIDS Council has sprung up in some
venues around town.*
The new poster features the slogan "A Typical Person With HIV" with
reflective surface below to resemble a mirror.
The Council's Venue Liaison Officer says that the idea is to challenge
people's perception on what a person with HIV looks like.
***
Brother Sister is a fortnightly newspaper published in Melbourne, VIC and
Brisbane, QLD, Australia. I have selected the main news stories as well as
items of interest. If you have any contributions, comments or questions,
please e-me on (leto@werple.mira.net.au).
NB: If you are representing overseas media and wish to utilise any or all of
the above material, please credit Brother Sister as your source (and by-line
if it is listed).
Thank You.
Brendon Wickham